Came For The Ron Clark, Stayed For The Jack Berckemeyer

A week ago, I attended my first Ohio Middle Level Association State Conference.  To be perfectly honest, I knew I was going to attend this conference six months ago, and it had nothing to do with the conference.  It had everything to do with Ron Clark being the keynote speaker.

Ron Clark is known for his numbered lists, but to me he is about two things:  high expectations for all students and making school fun.  I have been a huge fan of Ron Clark for about five years now and have always wanted to see him in person, and OMLA 2015 was my opportunity to do just that.

Ron Clark was a dynamic speaker, loved his message, and he was about as inspirational as I had imagined.  I just wish he would have handled how he addressed those who were videotaping him a little differently.  I am sure he had his reasons, and I am not in his shoes, but that was kind of a letdown.  But again, great speaker and great message.

The keynote speaker for day two was a man named Jack Berckemeyer.  I will admit, I never heard of him before, but noticed he had quite the crowd in his breakout sessions after the opening keynote.  His keynote on day two of the conference was unbelievable.  He was passionate, funny, engaging, funny, easy to relate to, and, well, you know, funny.  I became a fan very quickly.  If you do not know the value of teaming at the middle school level, his book is a must read.

The rest of the conference was great.  I learned many things, one of which was, I had been missing out by not attending this conference over the past few years.  I would have been a better middle level educator.  I also learned a valuable life lesson, and at 38 I am still learning new life lessons.  Here was my lesson:  give everyone a chance.  Jack Berckemeyer had me hooked within the first 30 seconds.  Had I left after Ron Clark, I would have missed a great deal.

If you are a middle level educator, I would highly encourage you to attend your state or national middle level conference (AMLE national conference is in Columbus, Ohio October 15-17, 2015).

Would Your Kids Do This?

We had a Snow Day today.  Actually it was a cold day (-20F with the wind chill).  Now my southern readers see that and cringe while my northern readers laugh.  Anyways, as I was sitting in my office this morning (yes principals still work on snow days) I decided to push this out to my kids via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram:

Within a few hours I received a few entries from our students and they were pretty good.  I hope to receive a few more tonight.  So if you were to post a similar contest, what would happen?  What does that say about the culture of your school?  Are kids running into your building or out of it?  Just something to think about.

Big Walnut Intermediate School
Sunbury, Ohio
Grades 5-6
530 Students

What's Your School Saying About PARCC?

Some schools are putting an unbelievable amount of pressure on their students to perform well on the new PARCC exams.  Others are not.  Here is a quick video I shared with our families today to let them know where we were coming from in terms of PARCC testing.  Some of our kids are dealing with enough in their young lives, the last thing they need is added pressure from their school.

Teach Like A PIRATE Day Presentation, OMLA 2015

Here is the Teach Like A PIRATE Day presentation I did at the Ohio Middle Level Association State Conference on 2/13/15.  This would be a great resource for any school or team thinking about doing their own TLAP Day.

For those who are unfamiliar with Teach Like A PIRATE, check out the 2nd video below for a quick explanation.

Let Them Pick Their Passion

The vision of our school is for students to Learn AND have fun.  Anyone who knows me knows it is an "and" not an "or."  As a staff we discussed this, and it is important to point out that this is our vision, not just my vision.  How the "and" looks varies by classroom, and this is something I have really embraced over the past month.

We have some teachers who have embraced Dave Burgess' Teach Like A PIRATE style and are creating engaging experiences in their classrooms.  I would want to be in these classes.  Others have been passionate about Project Based Learning, and I would want to be in these classes as well.  Others are embracing the work of Alan November and his idea of Who Owns The Learning? These students are creating their own instructional videos for the world to see. We have flipped classes, blended learning, station rotation models, you name it, someone is implementing it.  I want to be in those classes.

You may ask, is this good for kids and good for your school? Seem like a lot of different things going on. I say yes, and here is why.  Our kids are learning AND having fun.  Just as important, our teachers are using the methods in which THEY are passionate about to achieve this vision.  If they are passionate about it, they will work hard to make it better, and in the end, create a better learning environment for our kids.

I love walking around our building and stopping in the classes to see what is happening.  I usually do not want to leave.  Fortunately most of the students feel that way too.

Big Walnut Intermediate is a 5-6 building in Sunbury, Ohio.  The school has 530 students and 31 full-time teachers.

Ways Your School Can Use Social Media: Instagram

I am excited to be presenting at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference and the Ohio Middle Level State Conference in February about how your school can use social media to connect and communicate with your families.  Many, if not all of these methods would be considered pretty unconventional.  One of those ways is how we are using Instagram.

At Big Walnut Intermediate School, in Sunbury, Ohio, we have set up a school Instagram account and have been using it for about a year.  Now I know that statement right there scares many administrators, but in the year we have been using it, we have had ZERO negative interactions associated with it.

If you are unfamiliar with Instagram, think of it as Twitter with pictures or 15 second videos.  It is more along the philosophy of "A picture is worth a thousand words."  One of the ways we use it is probably what you would expect.  If I see something worth sharing, I snap a quick picture or video with my phone or tablet and put it on Instagram as a way to share the great things happening in our school.  The kids LOVE it.

The second way we use Instagram, and I got this idea from Eric Lowe, an assistant principal at Beaver Local Middle School in Lisbon, Ohio, is to share a positive message each morning (some examples are below).  The majority of the the people who follow our school's Instagram account are students.  The feedback I receive on Instagram is based on how many "likes" a photo or video receives.  The daily positive message receives MORE likes than any other photo or video I post on Instagram.  Even if these positive messages are only getting one or two kids off on the right foot in the morning, it is worth doing.  I believe it is impacting more than that.

Our kids and our staff work very hard, and that is no different than any other school in this world.  That work should be shared with as many people as possible.  Using social media allows us to do just that.  

Eric and I will be presenting on the various ways we use social media to tell our school's story.  Feel free to connect with us.

We Met The Pirate, Again.

Due to the generosity of a few Ohio educators, I was able to see Dave Burgess speak twice in the past year.  Last December, Brian Seymour (@seymoureducate) from the Pickerington Local School District in central Ohio invited me to their PD day in which Dave was the Keynote speaker.  Today, Kent Polen (@KentPolen), superintendent at Beaver Local School District  invited me to eastern Ohio to participate in their PD day in which Dave was working with their staff all day long.  Kent told me to fit as many teachers as I could in my car for the road trip.

As if I needed any more examples to highlight the value on connecting via Twitter.  I cannot thank these educators enough for their thoughtfulness.

Four of my teachers and I woke-up at 4 AM and made the three hour drive across the state to see the legend.  For me, Dave did not disappoint.  For my teachers, he was unbelievable to see in person.  His book is fantastic but you do not understand his passion until you see him live.  Those were my thoughts a year ago in Pickerington.  

Watching Dave present to a gym full of educators was unreal to see.  When I was a teacher, I will admit, we were not always the most receptive group ever to assemble.  However, once again, he had the audience engaged.  When you watch him, you do not get the sense that he his lecturing you or telling you how to do your job.  Rather, he is pumping you up so that you want to do a better job.

Our three hour car trip back home was just as productive.  We talked about some of the things he said and how we could apply them to make our school a place kids look forward to attending.  If you ever get the chance to see him speak, jump at the opportunity.